New Zealand Listener Issue 19, 2022

Many children in this country live in poverty, meaning their families do not have enough income and resources for the basics of a healthy life. As a paediatrician, I witnessed the surge in preventable diseases in the mid-1990s, resulting in many more children in hospital, some of whom were permanently damaged. I joined the Child Poverty Action Group to try to understand what was happening. It was a revelation to see how the benefit cuts of the early 1990s were quickly followed by escalating child poverty levels – the proportion doubled within 1-2 years. Poor health outcomes also dramatically increased, and they are still evident today, nearly 30 years later. These come at a terrible cost to the children, their families, and the community. Successive governments led by both major parties are…

WINNING CAPTION Ray Battersby, Wellington FINALISTS Caption: Following the successful introduction of same-sex couples in 2022, Dancing with the Stars 2023 will have an interspecies element. – Bernard Harris, Palmerston North Jimmy Fallon: “So this is what they mean when they say you have the X-Factor.” – Alan Belcher, Christchurch Fallon: “Oops. Now I understand why you asked for loud music to be played while we did this …” – Kate Highfield, Hastings Eddie Redmayne: “My Easter bunny shadow puppet was a hit!” – Hans Zindel, Palmerston North Caption: Eddie Redmayne and Jimmy Fallon are now mates for life. – Kate Highfield, Hastings Caption: Final of the World Air Quotation Marks Competition. – Steve Godsiff, Timaru Redmayne: “And then to relax, we unwind with The Pterodactyl”. – Mike Hamblyn, Dunedin…

Since the planned Fair Pay Agreements have come to the fore (“Labour pains”, April 9), letters in various publications have extolled the virtues of living in the last century. I don’t know if these writers were part of the workforce in the 1960s and 70s or are merely parroting rose-tinted union propaganda of the era. But for those of us who lived through it, it was a time of state-mandated compulsory unionism, the cooks and stewards on the Interislander ferries striking every holiday period, baggage handlers at Auckland Airport on strike at Christmas, the workers on the Mangere Bridge being on strike more days than they worked – and don’t mention how long it took to build the BNZ building in Wellington. Even though strikes and other industrial action would be prohibited…

“Saturday is the day of pre-rest, so that way when you actually get to Sunday, you’re rested enough to enjoy your rest.”– Lorelai Gilmore, Gilmore Girls“‘No worries if not,’ she threatened.”– seen on Twitter“You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.”– Franklin P Jones“Most soldiers have never tasted democracy for their whole lives. They are still living in the dark.”– Captain Tun Myat Aung, who deserted Myanmar’s military after learning that troops had killed civilians“It takes considerable knowledge just to realise the extent of your own ignorance.”– Thomas Sowell“What we want is to be accepted as we are, to implement these grand slogans of diversity, inclusiveness. Our only desire is to play soccer.”– Founé Diawara, president of Les Hijabeuses, a French group that campaigns…

1. Which of these phrases has a completely different meaning from the others? ❑ Finagle’s Law ❑ Murphy’s Law ❑ Sod’s Law ❑ Agnes Allen’s Law 2. Which airline is the Republic of Ireland’s flag carrier? ❑ Aer Lingus ❑ Ryanair ❑ Emerald Airlines ❑ EasyJet 3. Which of these was a successful 1950s hit single for Bill Haley & His Comets? ❑ Wake Up Little Susie ❑ Rock around the Clock ❑ The Wayward Wind ❑ Mack the Knife 4. Which parrot species introduced here in the early 1900s is now widespread? ❑ Major Mitchell’s cockatoo ❑ King parrot ❑ Eastern rosella ❑ Hooded parrot 5. What is a term for a sequence of earthquakes occurring close together? ❑ Throng ❑ Swarm ❑ Ruction ❑ Tumult 6. Which of these actors did not star in the film Charlie’s Angels, released in 2000? ❑ Lucy Liu ❑ Bill Murray ❑ Uma Thurman ❑ Cameron Diaz 7. True or false? The…

Like all professional football teams, North London’s Arsenal feature sponsors on their team shirts. On their chests is the logo “Emirates fly better”, to show that they rely on Gulf money. Nothing special about that. Without funding from various autocracies, dictatorships and their cronies, the English Premier League would not enjoy the riches that draw star players from around the world. No, it’s the logo on the Arsenal team’s sleeves that stands out: “Visit Rwanda”. That small east-central African country, best known for the genocide perpetrated there in 1994, is not on the top of most tourists’ bucket list. Even so, the UK government wants to see one group of travellers take the advice of the sleeve sponsor. This month, it announced it had struck a deal with Rwanda to house the…